Update: It is now confirmed on the website of Al-Bayaan that Haithamal-Haddad will not be attending this conference.

Following on from the recent Student Rights article highlighting the dangers of students organising or promoting off-campus events featuring extremist speakers, this Sunday will see a conference called ‘Flee to Allah’ take place which students at several universities have been encouraged to attend.

The conference is organised by Al-Bayaan, an organisation which aims to “teach the Ummah the keys to understanding the beautiful deen of Islaam...and to build an atmosphere of correct Islamic moral and etiquettes”.

Interestingly, on the Facebook page advertising the event, the Al-Bayaan profile states that “We will also be at LMC [London Muslim Centre] for LSBU Annual Dinner”, highlighting the connection between organisations and university societies that exist off-campus.

Top of the bill at the conference is Haitham al-Haddad, a man who has been criticised for his support for Hamas, anti-Semitism and homophobia. Al-Haddad is frequently invited onto campuses, and has also been barred from appearing at several, including the London School of Economics and London Metropolitan University.

He will be joined by Murtaza Khan, who has described homosexuality as an “abominable action which goes against humanity” and stated that the correct punishment for such acts is death.

He was also filmed in 2007 asking “for how long do we have to see our mothers, sisters and daughters having to uncover themselves before these filthy non-Muslim doctors?”

Also present will be Uthman Lateef, highlighted by the recent Student Rights report ‘Challenging Extremists’ as the Director of the Hittin Institute, an organisation which has released a number of reports, including one calling for “the return of the Islamic system” for Palestine.

Lateef has also said that “we don’t accept homosexuality...we hate it because Allah hates it” and in 2009 told an audience at the East London Mosque that “if we are teaching the way of life of the disbelievers, of the kuffar, Allah will bring humiliation on us”.

Another speaker on the bill, Shakeel Begg, was found in 2006 to have told students at Kingston University “You want to make jihad? Very good […] Take some money and go to Palestine and fight, fight the terrorists, fight the Zionists”.

Whilst the promotion of these speakers to students is deeply concerning, a further development highlights the way in which extremism only breeds further extremism.

On the 2nd June the far-right movement the English Defence League wrote about this event on their website, saying menacingly that “if the event does proceed then the English Defence League will be there”.

They are also running a Facebook event page called ‘Oppose the Flee to Allah Conference’, which says “At this point it is`nt [sic] a demo - if the venue does`nt [sic] cancel.....WE`RE COMING”. They also claim that Haitham Al-Haddad has withdrawn from the event, though this is yet to be confirmed by the organisers.

The damage that campaigns like this do to community cohesion is clear to see, and by promoting these events to their members Islamic Societies are equally to blame. Here at Student Rights we hope that many students will not attend this event and protect themselves from extremism on both sides of the political spectrum.

On 5 March 2018, the King’s College Libertarian Society attempted to host an event featuring Israeli speaker Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute and controversial YouTube vlogger ‘Sargon of Akkad’ (Carl Benjamin). Both speakers were due to talk about freedom of expression as well as ‘objectivism’, the libertarian philosophy created by Russian-American author Ayn Rand. The protest group set up on Facebook called for the speakers to be no-platformed and described them as ‘white supremacists’, ‘neo-fascists’, ‘nazis’ and ‘alt-right’. Off-campus groups, including black-clad activists from the hardline “left-wing, anti-fascist” street movement Antifa, were also present. Unlike the student societies, Antifa violently shut down the event and forced it to be cancelled. The organisers of the event faced other institutional obstacles. The appalling scenes at KCL last night are evidence of an encroaching culture of intolerance and hostility towards free speech on university campuses in Britain.

On Monday 12 February, former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Likud Party politician Dan Meridor gave a speech entitled ‘Threats and Challenges’ to students at the Strand Campus of King’s College London (KCL). This event, which was jointly organised by The Pinsker Centre and the KCL and City University Israel Societies, was met with vocal protests by students and activists affiliated to anti-Israel groups. Video footage shows how a crowd of around sixty protestors waved placards and sought to disrupt the event by screaming loudly outside the entrance to the lecture room where Meridor was speaking. Some protestors were reported to have photographed members of the audience leaving the room. The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) condemned what it called “disgraceful scenes”, and the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews claimed that he would be in contact with the Principal of KCL to “gain assurances that there will be no repeat”. We hope that KCL can fully ensure that future speakers, Israeli or otherwise, are not subject to similar attempts at disruption in future, nor their audience subject to unacceptable levels of hostility and intimidation.

In the lead up to Holocaust Memorial Day 2018, the UK government has announced that it will partner with the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and the Holocaust Education Trust (HET) in sending 200 university students from across the UK to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former Nazi extermination camp in Poland. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education have pledged to devote £144,000 to the project. They aim to train participants so that they can educate fellow students about anti-Semitism when they return to UK campuses. Student Rights is extremely supportive of the government’s decision to support students in this way. We hope it has a tangible impact at all levels of student life across the UK.